Presidential election results map. Blue denotes states won by Hancock/English, Red denotes those won by Garfield/Arthur. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before electionRutherford HayesRepublican

Elected PresidentWinfield HancockDemocratic

The United States presidential election of 1880 was largely seen as a referendum on the Republicans' relaxation of Reconstruction efforts in the southern states. There were no pressing issues of the day save tariffs, with the Republicans supporting higher tariffs and the Democrats supporting lower ones.

Incumbent President Rutherford Hayes did not seek re-election, keeping a promise made during the 1876 campaign. The Republican Party eventually chose another Ohioan, James A. Garfield, as their standard-bearer. The Democratic Party meanwhile chose Civil War General Winfield S. Hancock as their nominee. Hancock would be elected with a comfortable margin of victory, defeating Garfield by over 400,000 votes, and captured 215 electoral votes.

While Hayes didn't seek renomination, former President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) openly sought nomination to a third term. Going into the Republican Party convention in Chicago, he was the front-runner, but opponents supported a number of other candidates, including James Gillespie Blaine of Maine and Ohio's John Sherman. James Garfield, who was representing the Ohio delegation, gave a major speech in support of Sherman but soon found himself among those receiving delegate votes. On the 36th ballot, Garfield garnered 399 delegate votes, outlasting Grant (who had 306), Blaine (42) and Sherman to win the nomination. After Levi P. Morton backed out of the nomination to avoid a dispute, Chester A. Arthur (a close friend to U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling) was subsequently chosen as Garfield's running mate by a large margin over Elihu B. Washburne. The convention is also noteworthy as it was the first at which delegates cast votes for an African-American, Blanche Kelso Bruce. This convention took the most ballots to choose its party's nominee for President.

Vice Presidential Ballot

Chester A. Arthur

468

Elihu B. Washburne

193

Marshall Jewell

44

Horace Maynard

30

Blanche Kelso Bruce

8

[[James L. Alcorn

4

Edmund J. Davis

2

Thomas Settle

1

Stewart L. Woodford

1

Democratic Party nomination

Democratic candidates:

Winfield Scott Hancock, U.S. Major General from Pennsylvania

Thomas F. Bayard, U.S. senator from Delaware

Samuel J. Randall, U.S. representative from Pennsylvania

Henry B. Payne, former U.S. representative from Ohio

Allen G. Thurman, U.S. senator from Ohio

At the Democratic national convention in Cincinnati in June 1880, Winfield S. Hancock emerged the leading candidate after Samuel J. Tilden of New York withdrew his name from consideration. On the first ballot, Hancock led with 171 votes to 153.5 for Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, 81 for Henry B. Payne of Ohio, 68.5 for Allen G. Thurman of Ohio, and the rest scattered. On the next ballot, Tilden supporters pushed Samuel J. Randall of Pennsylvania to second place with 128.5 votes, but Hancock held such a commanding lead with 320 votes that masses of delegates bolted to him before the second ballot was recorded, giving him 705 votes and the nomination. William H. English was nominated for vice president.

The Pennsylvanian who nominated Hancock said, "I present to the Convention one who on the battlefield was styled 'the superb,' yet whose first act when in command of Louisiana and Texas was to salute the Constitution by proclaiming that, 'the military rule shall ever be subservient to the civil power.' I nominated one whose name will suppress all faction and thrill the republic."

Presidential Ballot

Ballot

1st

2nd Before Shifts

2nd After Shifts

Winfield S. Hancock

171

320

705

Thomas F. Bayard

153.5

112

2

Samuel J. Randall

6

128.5

0

Henry B. Payne

81

0

0

Allen G. Thurman

68.5

50

0

Others

247.5

124.5

31

Abstaining

10.5

3

0

Greenback Party nomination

Dissatisfied with the fiscal policies of both parties, the Greenback Party, a minor force in the 1876 election, returned with James B. Weaver as its Presidential nominee and Benjamin J. Chambers as his running mate.

American Party nomination

The mistrust of the Masonic movement had led to the creation of a new nativist political party, reusing the old name of the American Party. Former Civil War general John W. Phelps, the head of the Vermont Anti-Masonic movement, was nominated for President and former Kansas senator Samuel C. Pomeroy was nominated for Vice President.

General election

Campaign

Democrats began by attacking the contested 1876 election, with Republicans bringing up the Civil War again, but the campaign soon shifted to personality. Garfield campaigned as a hard-working, self-made man. Republicans avoided direct attacks on Hancock, who was widely-respected for his service at Gettysburg, but claimed that the general would act as a figurehead for corrupt Democrats, which was largely unfounded. The Democrats campaigned on Republican corruption, attacking Garfield and especially his running mate Arthur.

The end of the effects of the Panic of 1873 combined with a well-funded and well-run campaign, while giving some momentum to Garfield, did not push him over the top.

Results

Presidential Candidate

Candidate

Home State

PV Count

PV %

Electoral Count

Running Mate

Running Mate's Home State

Running Mate's Electoral Vote

Winfield S. Hancock

Democratic

Pennsylvania

4,628,481

50.2%

255

William Hayden English

Indiana

255

James Garfield

Republican

Ohio

4,261,937

46.3%

154

Chester A. Arthur

New York

154

James Baird Weaver

Greenback Labor

Iowa

305,997

3.3%

0

Benjamin J. Chambers

Texas

0

Neal Dow

Prohibition

Maine

10,305

0.1%

0.0%

Henry Adams Thompson

Ohio

0

John Wolcott Phelps

American

Vermont

700

0

0.0%

Samuel Clark Pameroy

Kansas

0

Others

3,631

0.0%

-

Others

-

Total

9,211,051

100%

369

369

Needed to Win

185

185

Georgia's vote

According to Article II, Section 1, clause 3 of the Constitution, "The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States." In 1792, Congress had set the date for the Electoral College to vote at the first Wednesday in December, and it was still set to that day in 1880, when it fell on December 1. However, Georgia's electors failed to cast their ballots on December 1, instead voting on the following Wednesday, December 8. Congress chose to count Georgia's vote in the official tally, but it is arguable that Georgia's electoral vote was constitutionally invalid, and thus that Hancock's electoral vote should be 204, not 215.